


A Promise That Must Be Kept

by TaraHarkon



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Death, Demon Deals, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Sad, Sad Ending, Undead, death crimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 07:24:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17018289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraHarkon/pseuds/TaraHarkon
Summary: In the ruins of Ravens Roost, Magnus is offered a deal. And he takes it.





	A Promise That Must Be Kept

 Magnus looked out over the burnt and smoking ruins of his home, of this place where he had made a life out of nothing and found a family with people who had once been strangers, and fell to his knees. Ravens Roost was gone. Only months after they had won the rebellion, after they had seized their freedom out of the hands of Governor Kalen, the town was gone and the pillars that had supported the craftsman's quarter so much rubble and dust. His home, his life, his Julia. They were all gone. He had nothing left to live for except maybe, _maybe_ , revenge.  
  
The smoke around him billowed upwards and slowly began to form a semblance of a shape, humanoid but indistinct, undefined. And Magnus didn't notice. He was too wrapped up in his grief, in the slowly growing bitter knowledge that he would have to comb through this wreckage to find friends, neighbors, family, to bury them six feet underground. That he would be leaving them all behind.   
And then he heard the voice.  
  
It was like smoke on the wind, a whisper, a growl, thunder at night, all wrapped into one. It echoed in his ears and it drew his eyes upwards toward that billowing figure out smoke.  
"Magnus Burnsides, you wish to see this put to rights." 

It was a statement of fact, not a question.

"You crave revenge. You want this Kalen creature to know fear, to know that he harmed those under your protection and for that he will pay."

There was another pause while Magnus tried to make out a face on this figure out smoke, tried to see where it was speaking from.

"You wish to have your wife returned to your side."  
  
Magnus' hands were clenched fists at his sides. He didn't trust this thing, didn't want to trust this thing. And yet. And yet. It offered him everything he wanted.  
  
"Who are you? Can you really give me all of that? She's..."  
  
He almost felt like the creature was giving him a pitying look.  
  
"Death is of nothing to me, Magnus Burnsides. If you wish her returned to your side all I ask is that you enact your vengeance upon Kalen. His soul will be forfeit to me."  
  
Magnus hesitated. Any creature that would want souls was bad, right? Evil. Probably a demon. And yet. Julia. To have Julia back, to have another chance at their life together. He looked up slowly, meeting the creature's gaze steadily.   
  
"Deal."  
  
The creature nodded once and Magnus felt the axe slung on his back suddenly grow warm. Just as quickly, the heat dulled and he felt something new stirring in his veins.  
"Then rise, my warlock, and return your wife to your side. You will need to wait until night falls to enact the rite, but take the time until then to familiarize yourself with your new invocations and to find her body. You will need it."  
  
And then it was gone.

* * *

Magnus spent hours shifting through the rubble and debris. He had quickly learned to channel the eldritch energy that now resided in his frame, to raise his hand and blast the area in front of him. He felt a rush of power and an odd, distant feeling of belonging that he hadn't worked through just yet. A feeling as though someone would have been impressed. Then he shifted a roof beam and the joy left him, replaced only with a sense of bitter determination. There was his Julia, bloody and broken. He cradled her cold form in his arms and stepped back out into the dying sunlight. She was limp, unmoving, cold. And soon the sky would be dark. He laid her on the grass and set about lighting a small fire, just enough to bring him some heat in the chill air.   
  
The moon rose into the sky and still he waited. The stars began to come out, the sun well set, and the sky a deep darkness. Only then was he willing to call it night, only then was he willing to risk enacting the spell that had been outlining itself in his mind in the whispered voice of that distant, smoky shadow. He raised his hands to the sky, power crackling between his outstretched fingers. And then he began to call.   
  
At first, nothing happened. At first. At first. And then? A scream tore the air and it was as though he was ripping something through a hole far too small, as though he had torn the air asunder and he could see a black and silver lake and a great stone castle. Red eyes met his with fury and he didn't care. He would have Julia back soon and that was all that mattered.  
  
 _"Magnus?"_  
  
Her voice, behind him. Julia's voice. But wrong somehow. That single word hung in the air and echoed in the night, as though she was speaking down a tunnel or through her cupped hands. He turned slowly and his eyes widened. Her crumpled body still lay unmoving on the ground but a faded white specter hung in the air before him. A wight, the ghost of one who died with business left unfinished.  
  
 _"Magnus."_

He held his hand out towards her.  
  
"Jules."  
  
There were tears in his eyes. She was back. She would always be at his side now. But oh gods, oh gods, what had he done? In the back of his mind, he could hear the creature that had promised him this still, those quiet whispers of vengeance and a debt now owed and a promise that must be kept. But all he could see was the specter of his wife hanging in the air before him with her hand outstretched towards him but never touching. Never touching again.

_"Magnus, what happened? What's wrong?"_

He was shaking and there were tears on his cheeks. But then he gave her a shaky smile.

"Nothing's wrong, Jules. It's alright. We're back together now and everything's gonna be okay." Then he took a breath. "But you and me are gonna have to go pay Kalen a visit."


End file.
